Terrorist Activity Since 9 11
Introduction

The Oklahoma City Bombing was a domestic terrorist attack perpetrated in 1995 by Timothy McVeigh—a Gulf War Veteran—and Terry Nichols, a former Army serviceman who had obtained a hardship discharge after only a year in service. The two targeted the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in retaliation for the Ruby Ridge and Waco stand-offs. More than 150 people were killed in the blast and nearly 700 more were injured (Collins, 1997). The Orlando Nightclub shooting occurred in 2016 and was committed by Omar Mateen at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Florida. Mateen was motivated to act by the killing of Abu Waheeb in Iraq and swore allegiance to the Islamic State before being shot and killed by Orlando Police after a brief standoff (Doornbos, 2016). Mateen killed 49 and wounded 53 more.

These two attacks serve as good comparison points because each contains actors who are motivated by hatred for the U.S. or had been triggered by actions taken by the U.S. government against others. In the case of the Oklahoma City Bombing, McVeigh and Nichols were outraged by the government’s treatment of the Branch Davidians at Waco, where the ATF basically laid siege to the compound, set the compound on fire and massacred the men, women and children living there (Collins, 1997). In the case of the Orlando nightclub shooting, Mateen was angered by the U.S. government’s role in destabilizing the Middle East and in particularly going after and demonizing the Islamic world. Mateen was taking revenge for the U.S. government’s slaughter of Muslim civilians in the Middle East (Greenwald & Hussein, 2018). The two attacks show, moreover, how terrorist attacks have evolved overtime: the Oklahoma City Bombing was a carefully plotted and constructed attack that took months to plan. The Orlando shooting was less carefully plotted, with Mateen not even selecting his target until just minutes before opening fire (Greenwald & Hussein, 2018). The evolution shows, therefore, that terrorist attacks today are much more impulsive, spur-of-the-moment reactions by terror cells that can be hiding in plain daylight (as was the case with Mateen, who was a security guard by day), whereas with McVeigh and Nichols, the two essentially lived off the grid and flew under the radar for months if not years before perpetrating their heinous attack on the U.S. government and innocent people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the ATF’s assault on Waco or the standoff at Ruby Ridge (Collins, 1997).

Pre-9/11 Terrorist Event

Nature of the Event

The nature of the Oklahoma City Bombing was essentially that of a revenge killing by McVeigh and Nichols. Largely in response to what they perceived to be an unjustified attack by the government on American citizens at Waco and Ruby Ridge, the two terrorists decided to strike back and to target government workers and their families at the government building in Oklahoma City. The event was coordinated between the two, though some suspect others were involved and a third co-conspirator Michael Fortier was charged for knowing about the plot and not doing anything to warn the government. The terrorists had strong anti-government sentiment. McVeigh wore a shirt that had quotes from Brutus and John Wilkes Boothe—two assassins—and a quote from Thomas Jefferson: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (Michel & Herbeck, 2015).

Methods

The perpetrators of the Oklahoma City Bombing used a truck bomb to attack the Alfred P. Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City. A rental truck was packed with 5000 lbs of explosives. McVeigh and Nichols packed the truck and separated while McVeigh drove the truck to the building in Oklahoma City, parked it outside and detonated it. McVeigh then headed onto the Interstate but was arrested for driving without a license play and carrying a concealed weapon.

Outcome

Authorities at first suspected the same group responsible for the first World Trade Center attack. However, as they examined footage of the truck bomber and began looking at data they realized this was a home-grown terrorist. Federal authorities linked McVeigh to the bombing through eye witness testimony and records, and tied McVeigh to the Fortiers and to Nichols. The Fortiers entered into a plea bargain and testified against McVeigh, who was sentenced to death. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Michael Fortier was given 12 years for failing to notify authorities about his foreknowledge of the bombing plot.

Post-9/11 Terrorist Event

Nature of the Event

The nature of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting was like that of the Oklahoma City Bombing—a revenge killing for what the terrorist believed to be unjustified attacks by the U.S. government on a population. In this case, the terrorist believed the U.S. government was targeting Muslims in the Middle East and was responsible for the deaths of innocent Muslim civilians (Doornbos, 2016). Mateen revealed as much in his 911 call after the shooting, saying that he was the shooter and offering his motive: "You have to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq. They are killing a lot of innocent people" (Doornbos, 2016).

Methods

The terrorist used a 9mm Glock, a semi-automatic rifle to shoot...…Thus, terrorist strategies have simplified since 9/11, which was a major operation. Driving a truck into a crowd of people or firing a weapon into a crowd at a nightclub is a simple but effective way to achieve terror in a community. Terrorists who are linked with the Islamic State do not require extensive plans or funding: they fuel one another by sharing stories online and then when they are outraged to their limit, they take action and die willingly believing that they will go to Allah. The strategy that they use mainly today is to form strategic networks and virtual communities so that they can nurse one another’s enmity and hatred for the West.

Summary and Conclusion

The terrorism seen in the Oklahoma City Bombing was perpetrated by two Americans who had served in the military. They were not Islamic but they were anti-government. They were angry about the government’s role in the Waco massacre and the Ruby Ridge standoff. They wanted to strike back at the government in a big way and thus they plotted to blow up the government building in Oklahoma City. The planted explosives in a rental truck and detonated with the goal being to maximize the number of killed and wounded. The Orlando shooter’s aim was to take revenge for the government’s bombing of Muslims in the Middle East. The terrorist was a follower and member of the Islamic State. He killed the crowd at the club in Orlando for no other reason than because he wanted to take revenge for the government’s killing of Muslims. In both cases it was blowback from government actions.

he methods of killing, however, were much simpler in the second case because the terrorist simply needed guns and an impulse to act, which he had. The second case was far more impulsive and required no planning. This means that the evolution of terrorism has changed beyond the need for planning. The Oklahoma City bombing required months of preparation and being off the grid. The Orlando shooting was ready-made because the terrorist was part of the Islamic State and was always ready to act because of the support group nature of the terror network today. In 1995, the terrorists had to basically fly under the radar and they had very little support group, so they were much harder to notice in this sense. Today’s HUMINT agents should be focusing on social media more because the terror networks are all there encouraging one another, promoting their ideas, and getting ready to strike whenever the impulse should arise.